Chapter Ninety-Six: The Puppet Paper Figure

After hanging up, Wang Feiyang and I hailed a taxi at once and hurried toward the place Peng Li had mentioned.

On the way, Wang Feiyang took out his phone and called Yan Fei, explaining the situation on our side in detail.

Although Wang Feiyang was not yet Yan Fei’s disciple, the fact that Yan Fei had given him the artifact of silence showed that, in Yan Fei’s heart, he had already acknowledged him.

And now, with the appearance of the paper puppet, the matter concerned one of the forbidden taboos of the paper-effigy craft. If the paper worker who had made it was still alive, then Yan Fei, as the foremost paper effigy master of the Bashu region, had both the duty and the obligation to get involved.

After hearing Wang Feiyang’s account, Yan Fei remained silent on the other end of the line for quite a while. Then he told Wang Feiyang to keep following us and investigating. When the time came for him to act, he would naturally step in.

With those words, the unease in my own heart, though not gone, gradually settled somewhat. I suspected that the paper worker hidden behind all this, and the monster as well, must be formidable indeed. But Yan Fei, as the top paper effigy master of Bashu, was surely no weakling either. With his assurance, we had gained another card to play.

By the time we reached the location Peng Li had given us, dusk was nearly upon us. Peng Li had parked his BYD off-road vehicle on the road outside an old residential complex, and even the police light he usually kept mounted on the roof had been removed.

Besides Peng Li, there were two young policemen in the car. Peng Li introduced them as elite officers selected from his force. Later, higher authorities would specially arrange for experts from the supernatural world to train them. Once they passed, they would become the first members of the paranormal investigation team.

I nodded without saying much, then asked Peng Li whether he was certain the ghost scholar was inside this complex.

Peng Li answered that he was certain. The police had a specialized technical department for tracking and locating this kind of target, and just three hours earlier, the ghost scholar had revised his work once again, uploading the final title and ending. So their technical department had immediately traced the upload site through the site’s IP interface and followed it here.

As he spoke, Peng Li shook his phone in front of me and said he had been in constant contact with the technical department. They had found that in the several hours after the upload, the ghost scholar had been at home operating his computer. So if the person who uploaded the ending was indeed him, then he had to be in Building 3, Unit 7-1, in this complex.

I hurriedly asked what the ending was, and what the title was.

Peng Li said the ending was much as we had first suspected: the carpenter’s wife was actually a paper figure. After the carpenter stabbed at his wife with his finger, he pierced straight through her face. Then, in his panic, his finger instinctively swept sideways, and from her cheek all the way to her throat, he sliced through her. Thus, his wife died on the spot, while he himself was driven mad with terror.

And the title of the piece was "The Puppet Paper Man."

Peng Li said he did not know what the phrase meant. Perhaps it simply referred to the carpenter’s wife being a puppet made of paper.

Peng Li did not know what the puppet paper man represented, but Wang Feiyang and I understood perfectly. After hearing this, we exchanged a glance, and both our expressions turned solemn.

It seemed our earlier guess had been correct after all: Wang Lun was the paper puppet. And the driver who had turned Wang Lun into one was very likely the ghost scholar.

If that was the case, then I had no idea what sort of horrifying being we were about to face. Thinking back to the water rat’s words about someone who could tear Wang Lun into eight pieces all by himself, I could not suppress a tremor deep in my heart.

At that moment, Peng Li asked what we should do next, whether we should go up and arrest the man right away.

I shook my head and said, “Brother Peng, things may be even more complicated now. The ghost scholar is not as simple as we thought. If the few of us rush in alone, who knows what terrifying thing we might run into. Call Director Peng at once and have him send more police to lie in ambush. Tell him that what we may be facing is a humanoid monster with monstrous strength.”

Peng Li’s expression turned grave as well, and he immediately dialed Peng Lei.

I, meanwhile, called Bai Rushuang at once, hoping she could bring Qin Yu to help.

In this great city, the only friends from the yin-yang world I could think of, besides Wang Feiyang, were Bai Rushuang and Qin Yu. Their methods were far from ordinary, so with them here, I would feel much more confident.

Bai Rushuang agreed rather readily, though she also made a request: after this was over, I had to treat her to hotpot.

Though that last hotpot meal had cost me more than seven hundred, which had stung a little, truth be told I was still more than willing to sit down and eat hotpot with that girl. After all, she was a beauty, and who does not delight in beauty?

After waiting for nearly an hour, Bai Rushuang and Qin Yu arrived in that Golf of theirs, and the police had also sent a squad over. To avoid alerting the enemy, they were all in plainclothes, each carrying a concealed pistol.

Peng Li then divided the dozen or so of us into three teams and had us first lie in wait inside the building where the ghost scholar was staying. If anything changed, we would rush in and seize him immediately.

The rest of us also split into several groups and entered the building separately. Peng Li and his two subordinates formed one group, Wang Feiyang and I another, and Qin Yu and Bai Rushuang a third. We would regroup once we reached 7-1, then break the door down together.

To be honest, even now I had not fully figured out why we were making such a big production of it. By rights, throughout this entire matter, the ghost scholar had never done anything against us. On the contrary, the clues he had given Peng Li had led us to the water rat.

But since the ghost scholar knew about paper puppets, that meant he must have some connection to the driver who had turned Wang Lun into one. And now that we had come this far, if we wanted to clear Liu Dong’s name, finding the real driver who had killed Wang Lun was the only way. Whether this ghost scholar was that driver or not, he was the only path by which we could continue tracing the line.

Soon Wang Feiyang and I took the stairs up to 7-1, where Qin Yu and Bai Rushuang, who had come up by elevator, were already waiting. Moments later, Peng Li and the others came up as well.

We exchanged a silent glance and stepped aside, while Peng Li lightly knocked on the door.

After several knocks, there was still no answer from inside. We looked at one another, and Peng Li then began knocking harder. He knocked more than a dozen times in a row, and if there had been anyone inside, they should have opened the door long ago. Yet there was still no response at all.

“Could it be no one’s home? Is there something wrong with your technical department’s data?” I asked.

Peng Li said that was impossible. Then he said the person inside was probably deliberately refusing to open the door. As if suddenly realizing something, he hurriedly used the walkie-talkie to instruct the police lying in ambush below to find people to keep watch on all the windows of 7-1. If anyone inside tried to escape through a window, they were to notify us at once.

After that, Peng Li glanced at the subordinate behind him. The man understood, nodded, stepped back two paces, and then gave a low shout before driving his foot hard into the door.

Though it was an anti-theft door, the officer’s kick was no ordinary one. With a thunderous crash, the steel door was actually kicked clean open.

Without another word, we charged inside. Because it was already evening, the room had no lights on, and the interior was very dim.

The moment I stepped in, a pungent stench hit me head-on. It was a smell so revolting it was hard to describe, making my stomach churn violently.

And then, from one of the bedrooms inside, there came a most eerie sound of keyboard keys clacking away:

Tap, tap, tap.